User`s guide

that the PC card needs to be "wear
leveled." Heavily used sectors on
PC cards eventually wear out. One
symptom of this is that it takes
more time to save data. The PC
cards from San disk and HP come
with a utility program called
WEAR that will flag the worn out
segments of the PC card as unus-
able and move your data to a part
of the card that still has a lot of life
in it. You only need to run the pro-
gram once or twice a year. Several
users have reported a noticeable
increase in speed when they save
or close a database file after wear-
leveling their
PC card.
- Delete
or extract all out-of-date
Appointments and ToDo items
from the database. That is, use the
(MENU) Eile Remove "Before"
command, with the "Save
Removed Items" option checked.
You can save the
removed items in
a file with the name AUG97.ADB
(or whatever)
and then merge this
with a larger archive file called
APPT97 .ADB. This will let you
trim down the size of the current
Appointment Book file while keep-
ing a record of all
your past accom-
plishments. If you notice that the
File Merge operation introduces
database errors in the merged file,
you can always use the File Print
command to send the database to
an ASCII text file. Then you can
use the DOS command COPY
APPT97.TXT +AUG97.TXT BIG-
FILE.TXT
and then COpy BIG-
FILE.TXT
APPT97.TXT, and final-
ly, delete AUG97.TXT. You can use
MEMO or PalEd it to search
through the text file for informa-
tion that you might want to use
during an annual appraisal review.
- Reserve
the Appointment Book
for
upcoming appointments only .
Some users have created elaborate
database files to handle ToDo
items.
-
ToDo items that are "Carried
Forward" ToDo's and repeating
Appointments tend to slow down
the Appointment Book. Try not to
use them.
- If you prefer using Repeating
Appointments, try not to modify or
delete individual instances of a
repeating appointment. This will
let the
Appointment Book start up
more quickly and it will reduce the
chances of introducing errors that
may corrupt your database.
- If all these strategies fail to get
you the speed you want, consider
popping for a double speed crystal
upgrade. This will make your
palmtop anywhere from 150% to
200% faster. Be aware that HP con-
siders this upgrade a violation of
the standard warranty. If your
palmtop requires service by HP,
count on losing the expensive
upgrade.
Speeding up ALL the databases
Many users have tried using a pro-
gram called FASTDB .TSR • to
speed up the performance of all
their database applications . The
TSR extension to the file name indi-
cates
that this program is a termi-
nate and stay resident program
peculiar to the HP palmtop. Once
installed in the HP 100/ 200LX it
modifies the operation of all the
database applications.
Ordinarily, when you add,
delete or modify an item in a data-
base file and press the FlO (OK)
key, the database engine modifies
the file, updates the index to the
file and then "packs" the file so
that it is up-to-date and accurate.
Packing can take a long time,
depending on the size of the file.
FASTDB.TSR postpones the pack-
ing process until
you actually close
the file. So if you have a lot of
editing to do, you might save some
time, but you'll have to wait a long
time for the database file to close
and get updated .
If, on the other hand, you have
a large
database file that contains
data that is typically read-only,
there is a down-side to using
FASTDB.TSR. Each time you open
and close the file, the size of the file
will
grow by several thousand bytes.
If you're not aware of this, you
might suddenly experience an
"insufficient disk space" error.
Stan Dobrowski, one of the
volunteer experts in the HPHAND
Forum on CompuServe, discovered
how to eliminate this side-effect.
He suggests editing two records in
the database (
two seems to be the
magic number) and then closing
the file . This forces the FAST-
DB.TSR program to update and
pack the file. Other users suggest
creating a System Macro that will
add two dummy records to a data-
base
and immediately delete them
just before closing the application.
This
has the same effect as Stan's
suggestion.
Even
with Stan's work-around,
some users have reported that they
have experienced
corrupt database
files once they started using
FAST-
DB.TSR.
So the best advice for
using this program is to ensure that
your database files are accurate
and then back them up .
••
CARD-LINK
The easy way to transfer files between your
palmtop and desktop
-+ FAST - 80.000 Bytes/Sec
-+ Easy to use - Works just like a floppy
disk drive.
-+ Convenient - plug in installation to
your parallel printer port.
-+ For both ATA flash and battery backed
up SRANI cards. Model CL683 also
allows
us e of type III hard drives.
Model CL680 for Type I and Type II cards.
$179.95
Model CL683 for Type I, II and I!I cards.
$189.95
Steele Creek Technologies, Inc.
14035 Applin/.( Lane
Charlotte, NC 28278
Phone or Fax: 704 - 588 - 1780
THE HP PALMTOP PAPER SEPTEMBER! OCTOBER 1997 15